The Inner Eye
by inflamarae
Summary: The way she looks at him sends shivers up his spine. NevillexLuna.


**Author's Note:** I just saw Deathly Hallows part 2 yesterday for the first time, and completely amazing as it was (and it really was), the thing that made it perfect for me was the inclusion of NevillexLuna. ('I'm mad for her!') Summer fling my arse, they're so good together. I could sit and write a list of reasons why, but you'll just have to take my word for it. I haven't read the book in a very long time and I'm reading Philosopher's Stone now to reread the series, so this is set in the movie-verse, just the way I saw it. Anyway, this is just a short thing to celebrate Luneville, and I hope you enjoy! :D

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><p>It was a strange thing. Everything that had just happened was now finished, everything they had been taught to fight for had been fought for, and everything was supposed to be happily ever after. But it wasn't. Hogwarts was destroyed - no doubt it could be rebuilt, of course, but people had died. And were dying. Bodies littered the floor like they had just been casually dropped, like they were just taking a quick, blood-soaked nap; you could hardly make a move without sending dust flying into the air, and the world that had waited 17 years for freedom had finally got it's wish.<p>

So where did they go from here?

For Neville Longbottom, there was only one place he wanted to go. He wanted to go find the girl he loved and finally tell her that he loved her. He would have told her earlier, but with everything going on, there was simply no time. And now, with the moment gone, he didn't feel as brave, and the fire he could have spat had been put out. Now there was only one place he could go - like everyone else, he shuffled into the Great Hall, the only bit of Hogwarts left that was recognisable, but only barely, since it had been turned into an emergency hospital wing.

Legs about to give way, Neville collapsed onto a step in the Great Hall as soon as he could, laying the sword he, himself, had just used to kill a part of the darkest wizard of all time down only for a second to massage his aching neck. He could feel blood dripping from various places, everything about him _hurt_ and he was exhausted. With a sigh, he looked at the destruction around him, but only for a moment.

As soon as he did, he felt the atmosphere around him change as a tiny body shuffled down next to him, stretching her skinny legs out in front of her and looking at him with her bright, shiny eyes. Her lips, however, remained sealed. Silence hung over them for a few moments as she looked at him, just _looked, _and it sent shivers up Neville's spine. He wondered what she was looking at. Or what was she looking for.

"H-heh-Hello, Luna." He stuttered out at last, trying to break the tension between them. For hours, he'd been watching people drop like flies, fighting a war and laughing in the face of death, but here he was, and he could barely speak to her. He'd just yelled at Voldemort himself, for Merlin's sake! All the words that he could have said seemed to have vanished from his mind, and all at once, he felt like stupid little Longbottom again. It was like being back in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, dangling from the chandelier; only this time he was being dangled in front of Luna, waiting for her to do something.

"Hello," She finally said.

That was it. _Just hello,_ he thought indignantly. How was he supposed to reply to that? After all that had happened… and with great embarrassment, he realised that he, too, only said hello. Did she feel as awkward as he did, right now?

Luna looked away from him at last, peering at the people all around them. Of course she didn't. Nervousness didn't apply to Luna. It was one of the things he loved about her, how she was always steadfast in her beliefs, how she never made apologies for who she was. It was one of the things that made her his opposite.

"Opposites attract, you know." She said in her dreamy tone, and Neville jumped. The sword of Gryffindor - which he had forgotten that he had picked up again - clattered to the floor. Luckily, everyone was a bit too preoccupied to look at them. He snatched the sword back up quickly as she smiled at him, her dreamy smile to match her dreamy voice. "W-what?" He gasped.

"Oh, just Ron and Hermione. They're so different, but so in love. It's nice." She said, looking at him once ore. Neville gulped some air back in to his lungs - he had been terrified that she had read his mind - she did seem like the type - but no. It was coincidence - just Luna being Luna. "Y-yeah. Everyone's tied up nicely now…" He replied, rubbing the hilt of the sword back and forth in his hands. She nodded. "It's a sad kind of beauty."

He stopped twirling the sword and looked at her. "How do you mean?"

"Well, you know, even through the pain and suffering of the situation he's been in, Harry found Ginny. And Ron had Hermione, George and Angelina-"

"George and Angelina?"

"Yes, I saw them crying together. That was sad, too. But there was just something there - something real."

Silence fell over them again. Neville looked at the sword in his hands, laying it down on the step next to him. For a long while, he inspected it, thinking things over. Next to him, Luna hadn't moved, except to look around some more and drum her fingers on her legs in time to the tune she had begun to hum. Candlelight glinted off the sword, illuminating the words 'Godric Gryffindor' engraved on the blade. Only a true Gryffindor could handle the sword. It had presented itself to Neville, and that's when he knew.

He turned back around the Luna, and their eyes met for only a moment. She hadn't been looking at him, earlier. She had been seeing him, truly seeing him, like he was seeing her now. From her bedraggled blonde hair to her rosy lips, stained with blood and yet she was still so beautiful. A sad beauty, a dangerous beauty, something that she hadn't been before. She wasn't just loony Luna now, and he certainly wasn't just silly little Longbottom. Now, they were _us._

He crashed his lips to hers in a movement so swift it had surprised them both, her bright eyes going wide as they touched, closing quickly as he wound his arms around her and pulled her into him. They gently broke away from each other after several long minutes, but he didn't let her go. He wouldn't be letting her go ever again.

"We're real, too." He whispered, brushing a flyaway strand of blonde hair from her face and kissing her forehead.

"What took you so long?" She whispered back.


End file.
